Kodos
Kodos, known in infamy as Kodos the Executioner, was a supporting character in Star Trek. Appearing in the episode "The Conscience of the King", he was once the governor of a Human colony who had executed 4000 citizens in order to solve a famine crisis. Since then, he had taken on the identity of Anton Karidian and resolved to live out the rest of his years as a stage performer. He was portrayed by Arnold Moss. History In 2246, an exotic fungus destroyed most of the Tarsus IV colony's food supply, and its inhabitants, of which there were eight thousand, faced starvation. Kodos, implementing his own theories of eugenics, selected four thousand of the colony's residents to be put to death, so that the remaining four thousand might survive on the limited food supplies available. Among the dead were the parents of Kevin Riley, who would serve aboard the USS Enterprise in the 2260's. Among the survivors were Riley, James T. Kirk and Thomas Leighton. Of the survivors, these three and six others were eyewitnesses who could identify Kodos. Supply ships from Earth would arrive at Tarsus IV earlier than predicted and discovered a burned body believed to be Kodos. With Kodos presumed dead, the case was closed. However, Kodos had faked his death and fled from Tarsus IV, taking on the new identity of Anton Karidian. Over the next twenty years, Karidian lived the life of a travelling stage performer along with his daughter Lenore. In 2266, Thomas Leighton was living on Planet Q when a troupe of itinerant actors, the Karidian Company of Players, performed there. He became convinced that their star, Anton Karidian, was actually Kodos. Diverting the USS Enterprise on a pretense, he argued this case to Kirk, who was less certain. Kirk's subsequent research raised some issues, and when Leighton was found dead outside his home, Kirk's suspicions became stronger. He arranged for the Karidian Company to embark upon the Enterprise, so that he could study the matter more thoroughly. Attempts on the lives of Kevin Riley and Kirk himself all but confirmed Kodos' identity. The Karidian Players were performing Hamlet, the price of their passage (so to speak), when Kevin Riley sneaked backstage. He had overheard Doctor McCoy making a medical log entry, and now also knew that Kodos might be aboard – and might be the person who had poisoned him and murdered his family. Riley stole a phaser and sneaked backstage, but was stopped from murdering Kodos in revenge by Kirk, who convinced him to give up the phaser. Karidian overheard their whispers, and during a conversation about them, discovered that his daughter, Lenore, had been slowly murdering the witnesses who could identify him. Distraught that Lenore, the one thing in his life untouched by what he'd done, was, in fact, poisoned by it, he raced after her when she snatched Harrison's phaser and ran onstage. When he realized she planned to kill Kirk, he stepped in front of the captain, and the shot meant for Kirk instead killed Kodos. Seeing what she had done, Lenore wept for her father, but her sobs soon turned to insane laughter. Lenore was apprehended and taken to a psychiatric facility, having already repressed the memory of killing her father. Category:TV Characters Category:TV Deaths Category:Supporting Characters Category:Star Trek Category:Star Trek: The Original Series Category:Killers Category:Mass Murderers Category:Accidental Deaths Category:Manslaughter Category:Death by Shooting